Romantic Words – part 1 – The Buzz-Concept Project

Romantic Words 🇬🇧 / les Mots Romantiques 🇫🇷 / las Palabras Románticas 🇪🇸 / le Parole Romantiche 🇮🇹 / as Palavras Românticas 🇵🇹 / les Paraules Romàntiques 🐱 / Cuvinte Romantice 🇷🇴

Explaining the pun in the name of this website: the Romans, the people who invented and spoke Latin… also renowned for the custom of R ❤ M A N C E (well, them or their descendant peoples), among a great many other fundamental things. And aren’t these languages all just so beeeauuutifulll? Aren’t you just in L ❤ V E ?

About the Romance languages of Europe… 🇬🇧 / Sur les langues romanes de l’Europe… 🇫🇷 / Sobre las lenguas romances de Europa… 🇪🇸 / Un blog sulle lingue romanze dell’Europa… 🇮🇹 / Sobre as línguas românicas da Europa... 🇵🇹 / Sobre les llengües romàniques d’Europa… 🐱 / Despre limbile romanice ale Europei… 🇷🇴

What are they? 🇬🇧

Quoi sont-elles? 🇫🇷

¿Qué son? 🇪🇸

Che cosa sono? 🇮🇹

O que são? 🇵🇹

Què són? 🐱

Care sunt acestea? 🇷🇴

They are a family of European languages that are all descended from Latin. / Elles sont une famille de langues européennes qui descendent du latin. / Ellas son una familia de lenguas europeas que descienden del latín. / Loro sono una famiglia di lingue europee che discendono dal latino. / Elas são uma família de línguas europeas que descendem do latim. / Són una família de llengües europees descendents del llatí. / Ei sunt o familie de limbi europene care sunt descendente din latină.

This family includes French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan and Romanian. / Cette famille incluit le français, l’espagnol, l’italien, le portugais, le catalan et le roumain. / Esta familia incluye el francés, el español, el italiano, el portugués, el catalán y el rumeno. / Questa famiglia include il francese, lo spagnolo, l’italiano, il portoghese, il catalano e il rumeno. / Esta família include o francês, o espanhol, o italiano, o português, o catalão e o romeno. / Aquesta família inclou francès, castellà, italià, portuguès, català i rumeno. / Această familie include franceză, spaniolă, italiană, portugheză, catalană și română.

Different classifications and opinions:

*El móndo vèneto* – part 1, part 2, part 3

My verdicts:

Lingua latina

Latin’s mighty lectitecture

Latin / lingua latina / latinum is an Indo-European language from the Italic branch, related to Faliscan, Osco-Umbrian, South Picene, and Venetic, and the ancestor of all the modern Romance languages. Latin was originally spoken by small groups of people dwelling along the Tiber River. As the Romans began to accumulate power, the Latin language was spread across the European continent. The Romance languages actually evolved out of Vulgar Latin, the technical name for spoken, common Latin. Latin was the language most universally used in the West for scholarly and literary ends until not all too long ago, even in the Middle Ages. Classical Latin had six grammatical cases, which it allegedly inherited straight from Indo-European. During the Classical period there were three types of Latin: Classical (written) Latin, Classical (oratorial), and Vulgar (colloquial) Latin. The Latin language is named after the Italo-Roman province of Latium, modern day Lazio, the Italian region in which the city of Rome / Roma is now situated – and the Latini tribe who dwelt there, having as their recognised centre a dormant volcano named Mons Albanus located 20km southeast of Rome. The well-educated elite of Rome also spoke Ancient Greek, and Latin thus acquired a lot of Hellenisms.

Vulgar Latin

Vulgar Latin is the name for common spoken Latin that was spoken throughout the Roman Empire, as opposed to pernickety, pure, formal, literary, elite Classical Latin. Vulgar Latin grew to diverge majorly, eventually giving rise to different languages. I have been entertaining the peculiar view that there was one –technically– distinct diverged Vulgar Latin language that then diverged further and split up into the different tongues that are now known as the Romance languages. What we can say is that there was in any case a substantial distinction between the Vulgar and Classical varieties of Latin. The main Romance languages today, as in those which are most spoken, are Spanish (around half a billion speakers in 2021), Portuguese (around 1/4 billion), French, Italian, and Romanian; these languages emerged out of Vulgar Latin between the third and eighth centuries. This “language” whose technical existence I propose would perhaps be better called “Vulgar Romance“, depending on whether or not there was actually a separate Vulgar language from Classical Latin.

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PART 2